Hi, I’m Chris…I handle transportation policy for the Municipal League and will be working with the Get Michigan Moving Campaign.  I had the opportunity this past week to travel the Amtrak Blue Water line from East Lansing to Chicago with a group of state legislators, staff and MDOT officials to learn about Amtrak’s presence in Michigan and the Midwest.  We spent the ride down hearing presentations from Amtrak and MDOT staff about hi-speed rail development in Michigan and future plans for rail expansion in the state.  Michigan has $800 million in ARRA hi-speed rail project applications awaiting approval from Washington and we heard detailed explanations of each project and learned about the technical aspects of bringing hi-speed train travel into Michigan.  Did you know that Michigan has the only stretch of track in the Midwest capable of hi-speed passenger travel?  The corridor from Kalamazoo, MI to Porter, IN was recently upgraded to allow travel at speeds of about 100 MPH!  It was an exciting day and I am eager to hear how Michigan fares when the feds announce the grant winners early next year.

Kudos to MDOT Director Kirk Stuedle for his letter in the Detroit News reminding folks of the importance of high-speed rail to Michigan’s future and the benefits such a system brings.  Read how Michigan is positionining itself, in collaboration with other midwestern states, to receive Recovery Funds for such a project.

Found this great article from ABC news on the various ways that transit is helping our economy.  Check out this story about the buses used in Santa Monica, CA transit system being built in Grand Rapids, MI.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7328664

Late yesterday afternoon, I received a call from the Governor’s office asking me to attend a meeting to discussion the transportation portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - also known as the federal stimulus program.  It’s kind of hard to say “no” to that sort of thing.

So this morning, around 10AM, I hurried down Capitol Avenue and headed to the Romney Building.  I even wore green for the occasion (or for St. Patty’s Day).  I was escorted to the Cabinet Room where 20 folks from various transportation interests were already waiting.  Before I knew it, we were all discussing the stimulus program and quickly learned that tomorrow the House was going to act on a supplemental appropriations bill that would authorize spending the ARRA money.

Before the meeting ended, we all agreed that now is the time for our collective membership to start calling their state legislators to tell them the following things:

1. We need them to vote YES on HB 4582 (introduced by Rep. Lee Gonzales).
2. We need them to offer no amendments on HB 4582.  We don’t need this bill tied up with any political games.
3. We need them to vote YES on HB 4582 by April 2, 2009 because there a clock ticketing on the ARRA money.  We have to have 50% of it obligated by June 28th or the federal government will give the money to other states.
4. We need them to act quickly to vote YES ON HB 4582.

Needless to say, we need you to call folks.  But for now, let me say “Thank you” in advance for the calls and the work that you’re doing to help get this bill moving.

I was given a copy of Milwaukee Mayor’s 2009 State of the City Address.  Here’s an exerpt from it:

We need to support and pass the Regional Transit Authority legislation. Our region is much more than interstate highways. An RTA that funds and operates transit will be an asset to Milwaukee and to the region. With an RTA in place we can reverse the death spiral of the current County-operated transit system, expand transit services so workers can be connected to regional jobs and extend commuter rail from Kenosha to Milwaukee. I’m asking all regional leaders to join me in supporting the high-speed rail initiative. There’s $8 billion in the stimulus package for this and it has Milwaukee and Wisconsin written all over it. It is also time for regional leaders to join together and demand that federal and state transportation officials recognize that transportation is more than widening highways. It’s also about local roads and mass transit.

I just want to say that there’s $8 billion in the stimulus package for transit … AND IT HAS MICHIGAN”S NAME WRITTEN ALL OVER IT IF WE WANT IT!!!

This week I attended the first of several meetings that the Senate Transportation Appropriations that mark the FY 2010 budget process.  As is tradition, the Michigan Department of Transportation (since they’re the department that is responsible for this particular budget) got to testify first.  Leon Hank, MDOT’s Chief Administrative Officer, gave the presentation.  He spoke both about the proposed budget and the Federal stimulus program.  Highlights of he presentation include:

Transportation FY 2010 Budget:

• The budget is based on the assumption that overall transportation revenues will be down $156 million (4.6% from the previous year).  The gas tax is projected to be down 4.3%, diesel tax is project to be down 8.3% and vehicle registration fees are projected to be down 1.5.%
• State federal aid road and bridge program will be decreased 23.84% (or $356.3 million overall).  Local federal aid road and bridge program will be decreased 19.65% or $61 million. MTF distribution to counties, cities, and villages will be decrease4.88% or$45.4 million.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Federal Stimulus):

• Stimulus funds under will be under a very agressive timetable.
• Stimulus funds do not have any matching requires (100% grants)
• Michigan will receive $857 in highways funds.
• Transit systems will receive $135 million
  • This represents 1.95% of the total.
  • $102 million will be given to urban transit agencies
  • $22 million will be given to rural transit
  • $10 million will be award from the “density growth formula”

Requirements:

• Projects must be federal aid eligible
• 50% of these funds must be “obligated” within 120 days of MDOT receiving official word of Michigan’s allocation (sometime in the first week of March).
• The remaining 50% must be used with 1 year.
• Funds not obligated will be swept back into a discretionary grant program.

It’s good to see that transit is receiving something and these funds can be used to upgrade our current systems and perhaps lay the groundwork for commuter and high speed rail